All
countries and nations have their favourite dishes, which have long
stepped over the national boundaries and because of their virtues have
suited everybody’s taste. Suffice it to recall Hungarian goulash,
English beefsteak, Austrian schnitzel, Russian boef a la Stroganoff
and others. But not everybody can boast of what one might call the
national cuisine-a list of dishes differing in gustatory sensation and
slightly similar in some qualities. People throughout the world know
French cuisine notable first of all for its exquisite sauces; Russian
cuisine known for appetizing fish dishes, pies and pancakes; Chinese
cuisine differing from all others in using uncommon products and
possessing quite a specific taste of its own.

Georgian
cuisine uses well familiar products but due to varying proportions of
its obligatory ingredients such as walnut, aromatic herbs, garlic,
vinegar, red pepper, pomegranate grains, barberries and other spices
combined with the traditional secrets of the chef ‘s art the common
products do acquire a special taste and aroma, which make Georgian
cuisine very popular and unique.

Georgian
national cuisine is notable for an abundance of all possible kinds of
meat, fish and vegetable hors d’oeuvres, various sorts of cheese,
pickles and pungent seasonings, the only ones of their kind.

A guest
invited to the Georgian table is first of all offered to eat the
golden-brown khachapuri which is a thin pie filled with mildly salted
cheese; then he is asked to try lobio (kidney bean) (ripened of fresh
green beans) which nearly in every family is cooked according to its
own recipes; stewed chicken in a garlic sauce; small river fish
“tsotskhali” cooked when it is still still alive; sheat-fish in
vinegar with finely chopped fennel; lori, a sort of ham; muzhuzhi,
boiled and soaked in vinegar pig’s legs; cheese “sulguni”
roasted in butter, pickled aubergines and green tomatoes which are
filled with the walnut paste seasoned with vinegar, pomegranate grains
and aromatic herbs; the vegetable dish “pkhali” made of finely
chopped beet leaves or of spinach mixed with the walnut paste,
pomegranate grains and various spices. In East Georgia you will be
offered wheaten bread baked on the walls of “tone”, which is a
large cylinder-like clay oven, resembling a jar, while in West Georgia
you will be treated to hot maize scones (Mchadi) baked on clay
frying-pans “ketsi”.

Lovers
of soups will be delighted with the fiery rice and mutton soup “kharcho”,
the tender chicken soup “chikhirtma” with eggs whipped in vinegar
and the transparent light meat broth flavoured with garlic, parsley
and fennel.

Even the
most experienced gourmand will not be able to resist the savoury chizhi-pizhi, pieces of liver and spleen roasted in butter and whipped
eggs; crisp chicken “tabaka” served with the pungent sourish sauce
“satsivi”. The famous dishes include the melting-in-the-mouth
sturgeon on a spit and sauce; the chicken sauce “chakhokhbili” in
a hot tomato and dressing; the Kakhetian dish “chakapuli” made of
young lamb in a slightly sourish juice of damson, herds and onion;
roasted small sausages “kupati” stuffed with finely chopped pork,
beef and mutton mixed with red pepper and barberries.

Everyone
in Georgia is fond of “Khashi”, a broth cooked from beef entrails
(legs, stomach, udder, pieces of head, bones) and lavishly seasoned
with garlic. There exists quite a just opinion that “the onion soup
in Paris and the khashi soup in Tbilisi serve the same purpose. They
are eaten by the same people-by hard workers to make themselves
stronger and by revelers to cure a hangover”. Remember E.
Evtushenko’s lines: “Everyone who saws, transports, builds,
sweeps the neighbouring streets, makes shoes, digs ditches eats khashi
in the morning”.

Admirers
of Khinkali-a sort of strongly peppered mutton dumplings, a favourite
dish with the mountain dwellers of Georgia-keep growing in number.
Like everywhere in the Caucasus, mcvadi (shashlik) is very popular in Georgia.
Depending on a season, it is made of pork, mutton or spits aubergines
stuffed with fat of tail and tomatoes.

The
splendour of Georgia cuisine is backed up by famous white and red dry
wines, among which anyone choose wine to one’s own taste: “Mukhuzani” with a pleasant bitter taste, golden cool
“Tetra”
light straw-coloured “Tsinandali” with a crystal sourish touch,
dark amber-coloured slightly astrigent “Teliani”, rubycoloured
“Ojaleshi” with a mildly sweet, emerald-like sparkling “Manavi”,
garnet-red honey-tasting “Kindzmarauli”, and dark ruby-coloured
velvety “Khvanchkara”, light-green “Gurjaani” dark golden
fruity “Tibaani” and many others. If to Georgian wines you add
best-brand cognacs, champagne, not to mention remarkable mineral
waters and fruit drinks, you can fancy what pleasure Georgian cuisine
will to you.

The
Georgian table is conducted in a wise manner in accordance with the
ancient ritual. The head of the table “tamada” is elected as
proposed by the host. The tamada must be a man of humour with an
ability for improvisation and a philosopher’s wisdom. If there are
many guests at the table he appoints assistants who in Georgian are
called “tolumbashis”. The tamada’s toasts follow one another in
a strict never violated order. The guest is obliged to listen
attentively to each toast and appreciate the beauty of style and the
purpot of the worlds said. If is not allowed to interrupt the tamada
when he is saying the toats. The tamada’s assistants and other
guests may only add something to the toast or develop its ideas. If
you wish to say a toast, you must by all means have the tamada’s
consent or else you will find yourself in an awkward position. This
table ritual does not put restraints on the guests but maintains
discipline at the table. The feast proceeds among jokes and is
accompanied by a dance competition, table songs and music, quotations
and aphorisms from the works of poets and writers.